Baker Wasn’t Fishing for Compliments on His Catch

--It’s not an Olympic competition, but a Soviet and an American who rank high in the field of international relations met in Wyoming’s Snake River for a friendly sporting event. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze hadn’t trained very hard, and it showed: He came up empty after 90 minutes of fishing for cutthroat trout. “I’m no pro,” the foreign minister said. Secretary of State James A. Baker III had better luck but wasn’t eager to give the story to the press. “If you won’t tell the President, I’ll tell you,” Baker said, referring to President Bush’s long summer slump in fishing off Kennebunkport, Me. Baker reeled in three trout in short order. “I threw them all back,” he said. Park officials at Jackson Hole said Baker’s biggest catch was 9 inches. A “respectable” catch would be 15 inches, ranger Doyle Nelson said. “That’s just an opinion.” Nelson said the river had not been stocked for the event but that ranger Don Daughenbaugh had tried out fishing holes and flies for the outing. Shevardnadze didn’t go away empty-handed. He was given two memorial plaques and a $300 graphite fly-fishing rod donated by local merchants. Shevardnadze laughed, saying: “I’ll need this in Moscow.”

--While one of his aides was fishing, Bush made sure his golf outing with another in Kennebunkport would be a blast. He had an exploding chalk ball planted on the first tee. When National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft hit the ball solidly, it disintegrated into a cloud of white dust. As any practical joker would, Bush turned aside, laughing. Kay Raynor, the club golf pro who was the third member of Bush’s trio, said to Scowcroft: “The President put me up to that. I apologize.” Bush said he pulled the prank because he was trying to get his adviser to lighten up after an appearance on a television news show.

--Vienna, Austria, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the death of Sigmund Freud with an art exhibit at an apartment where the pioneering psychoanalyst once lived. Even some wallpaper displayed there carried passages from his work “The Interpretation of Dreams.” At the Freud Museum opposite the apartment, several hundred guests attended the opening of an exhibition spotlighting his lasting contributions, such as free association and dream analysis. Other institutions around the city also honored him, including the University of Vienna, where he attended school and did research.